The document puts firms on alert to be prepared, for instance, to provide a comprehensive list of when they detected malware, suffered a "denial of service" attack or discovered a network breach since January 2013. The SEC also plans examinations of more than 50 firms that will focus on cyber security-specific issues, said Fox Business.

In addition to asking questions about past attacks, the SEC document also indicates that examiners might gather information about how firms protect private customer information. This includes checking to see how customers are authenticated to access online accounts and what security measures are in place to protect PIN numbersm said Fox Business.